How’s fishing on the upper White in AR?

[brian barnes]

In a few weeks I’m taking a trip down to the Beaver Lake tailwaters in Arkansas to stay for a few nights. Has anyone been there recently after all the rain and flooding? Just curious if it’s fishable once again. I’m going with family, most of who do not fish with waders. Should we rent a boat to improve our success? Rumor has it that crawfish colored wooly buggers may be a good choice…

[mike j]

Check John Wilson’s board….

[Steve Dally]

Boat would be a real plus, _ the tailwater is 4′ higher than normal high water levels.
Basically the tailwater is now part of Table Rock Lake,
Ive heard of some good fish caught including my old friend the 30+” brown which lived in a certain hole for years. Had a couple of clients over the years connect to that fish, none won LOL BTW either did I.
Give the guys at the Beaver Dam Store a call

http://www.beaverdamstore.com/

cheers

[craig phillips]

OK Steve, if I can’t interest you in carp unless they are slurping mulberries, how do 6.5 pound wipers sound to you?

[Steve Dally]

Love those wipers 🙂
I’d leave now but my clients over the next week might be a little pi$$y LOL

And I have a couple of speaking engagements between the 30th and the 2nd. All comes in a rish huh.

Cheers and looking forward to the pics

[greg mitchell]

I live in the vicinity and fish Taneycomo and the White pretty often. If you are wading the fishing is very, very tough. A boat is almost essential right now due to the high water. Both the tablerock and bull shoals dam are generating water almost non-stop.

Greg

[anonymous]

Brian. There has not been for several weeks now, nor will there be wade fishing available below Beaver dam for sometime. Not until Table Rock drops about 10 feet to around 920, and even then wade access will continue to be restricted until it is brought down to normal lake level of 915 msl.

We just got an inch of rain here close to Beaver dam this morning and across southern Missouri. There is a chance for at least another inch over the next 4-5 days according to the folks at the NWS. If that occurs, we may be looking at flood gates open once again on Beaver, Table Rock and Bull Shoals or any combination of the three. Just depends on where rainfall occurs. Regardless, lake levels on the three just mentioned will be starting to creep up the remainder of Memorial day weekend and the beginning of this next week.

I fished the tailwater with a couple of customers a couple of weeks ago, and we caught a few rainbows (nice size by the way) on crayfish and small streamer patterns. No rumor. That was in my report several weeks ago ;-). I suspect there are also a bunch of big stripers in the tailwater. Water depth of the tailwater at the dam is about 14-feet during non-generation.

Unfortunately, wade anglers are going to find very few low water days on the tailwater this year. There may be a window of low water opportunties as the Corps draws down Table Rock and before it starts to evacuate flood storage on Beaver, but its too far out at the moment to tell for sure.

Generation flows have been rather modest since the tailwater river stage is so high. Boating will be a good option if you are comfortable with that option. As Table Rock Lake level decreases, flows from Beaver powerhouse will increase under generation load, so boaters need to be aware.

Hope you have a fun and safe trip,

Scott

[brian barnes]

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.

Sounds like fishing may be tough and wading at beaver is out. My local fly shop says roaring river is fishing well. Perhaps we should drive up for a day and give this a try and only boat fish the beaver tailwater for a day. This will be my 10 year old’s first time trout fishing on the fly so I want him to “catch the fly fishing bug”. Hopefully the tailwater level will continue dropping as table rock lake is drained a bit…

Scott – I checked out your website. Nice! Looks like a great resource.

[anonymous]

Thanks, Brain. I heard recently the Corps anticipates having Table Rock back down to 917 by mid-July if the weather cooperates. So, that may mean better conditions in 2-3 weeks.

Roaring River is always a nearby option for a side trip. If you fish the catch and release section early, you may be the only there. Anglers often don’t start showing up in there until mid-morning. Check with Tim Homesley at Tim’s Fly Shop just up the hill on 112 towards Cassville. Tim’s the most knowledgable person about fishing the park.

Scott

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